Everything on the internet is persuasion. Everything on the internet is designed to make you do something.
You must see this if you wish to think well.
You think you rationally arrived at an opinion or decision. No you didn’t. You (speaking to myself now) are dumb and believe the last thing you hear. You opinions have been handed to me and then reinforced by propaganda.
Fortunately I have some training to be skeptical and look for the other side of the argument. Do I use this consistently? No. I am as dumb as every fish who ever saw a shiny with a yummy on it and decided it was lunchtime.
Eventually I wake up though.
Why am I hearing this? Why am I hearing this now? Who or what receives the benefit of my action or passive assent to the message?
These questions, when asked regularly, make me smarter.
Even better? Just ask why the dog isn’t barking. What’s missing from the picture? What is not being said? As often as not, truth is found in the void, in what is omitted.
Sins of omission. Look for them.